Use workplane space for ortographic cameras when workplane is active

What I have stated is also approximate. When you have some objects in the scene, sometimes you can use scene scale 1 or 10 or 0.1 and it won't make much difference because of the broad tollerance. For example, soft selection range can reach over the scene size of the next up scene scale.

By 'Fine tune', I mean you can adjust the scene scale up or down after auto scale. When you import some objects and you have no idea what the best scene scale should be, you can use auto scale then manual scale for find out the best scene scale quickly. Most of the time you only need to adjust one level manually to the best scene scale you want.

Do you see any potential problem? Don't need to stick to a particular number, it is just an approximate guide.

Thank you IStonia for your exhaustive explanation.
I would have never figured out by my own that my snapping problems might be caused by scene scale not being large enough. I always thought that the "Scale Scene" command scales all objects within the scene by a given multiplier, so I simply didn't even use it once and never planned to.

Okay, but back to the main question.
I see that there's a "Perpendicular to Workplane" command that can act as workplane's Top View. Still, NVil lacks other orthographic views for workplane space. In order to align those cameras properly I adopted a work-around (temporary, I hope) in which I rely on a dummy cube to align views to its selected faces using the "Align along subobject normal" command (http://youtu.be/wJFRsx6fmpI).

Will you consider adding a toggle to switch between alignment of ortho camera to world and workplane spaces?

I see you have a clever work-around. Actually the workplane space camera alignment has been implemented and will be available in next update shortly.

Heh yes, well I had to find some way to align those ortho views. Just imagine my joy when I found that command...

the workplane space camera alignment has been implemented and will be available in next update shortly.

IStonia, you're a bearer of good news. I can't wait for the update.

I am currently doing the subd cage. You can go to sleep and when you wake up you will see the new update, hopefully.

Well, it's done.

Fantastic update IStonia! Thank you very much. This makes working with workplanes a lot faster and more efficient.

However, there are two things I'd like to address.

The "Set View Navigation Space" works great, but has to be applied to each view separately. Imagine a user that has just switched to workplane space while being in perspective view. He still needs to go through all the orthographic views to set them to workplane space too. That's six times he has to enter the View->Set View Navigation Space menu or press the same shortcut key he has mapped to it.

The other thing is that when "Custom/Front/Back/... View" is enabled, orthographic views will still overwrite the perspective camera's position and rotation when user switches back to it. Also, orthographic views seem to propagate their own individual shading modes and grid visibility to perspective view, but switching between orthographic views works correctly.

http://youtu.be/qUnMltLzKKU

The "Set View Navigation Space" works great, but has to be applied to each view separately. Imagine a user that has just switched to workplane space while being in perspective view. He still needs to go through all the orthographic views to set them to workplane space too. That's six times he has to enter the View->Set View Navigation Space menu or press the same shortcut key he has mapped to it.

It is fixed.

The other thing is that when "Custom/Front/Back/... View" is enabled, orthographic views will still overwrite the perspective camera's position and rotation when user switches back to it. Also, orthographic views seem to propagate their own individual shading modes and grid visibility to perspective view, but switching between orthographic views works correctly.

The 'Perspective/Orthographic' command is only used to switch between the camera's perspective and orthographic attribute and the camera's location and focus point remain unchanged. To achieve your result, you need to use the 'Snap View' command as I mentioned in previous post. You can also use the S viewport gadget, bottom left corner.

It is fixed.

Working great! Thanks!

The 'Perspective/Orthographic' command is only used to switch between the camera's perspective and orthographic attribute and the camera's location and focus point remain unchanged. To achieve your result, you need to use the 'Snap View' command as I mentioned in previous post. You can also use the S viewport gadget, bottom left corner.

Okay, I understand why this happens now.

But 'Snap View', while eliminating the problem with shading and grid settings inheritance, still forces you to rotate the camera back to the position in which perspective view was at the moment you left it. The camera upon leaving the orthographic view remains at the same position and rotation as the last ortho view you used of course. And this is the problem I have with NVil (a minor one). In other 3D packages, perspective camera's position and rotation is preserved even after you switch to and back again from orthographic views. It remains exactly the same as you left it. True, most programs utilise separate cameras, but  Silo  for example seems to be using one for everything* and perspective view position and rotation is preserved (http://youtu.be/326BXcFe-Tw).

But again, it's not a big deal. Just something that slows down the work a little.

* - And even if Silo under-the-hood uses separate cameras bound to each view, the view positions are completely independent from each other. So there's no need to move/rotate the perspective view back to wherever you left it before switching to one of the six orthographic views.

Hi rubberDuck,

True, most programs utilise separate cameras, but  Silo  for example seems to be using one for everything* and perspective view position and rotation is preserved

When changing views in Silo, you are actually changing view-ports (Display-> Viewport Camera).

In NVIL, there are no commands available to change view-ports, it needs to be done from within multi-view(ports). There was the "Step Viewport Forward" and Step Viewport Backward" added, but that again only works in multi-view(Ports).

But 'Snap View', while eliminating the problem with shading and grid settings inheritance, still forces you to rotate the camera back to the position in which perspective view was at the moment you left it. The camera upon leaving the orthographic view remains at the same position and rotation as the last ortho view you used of course. And this is the problem I have with NVil (a minor one). In other 3D packages, perspective camera's position and rotation is preserved even after you switch to and back again from orthographic views. It remains exactly the same as you left it.

Do you have this option checked, Edit > Preference > Options > Custom/Front/Back... view has own camera settings?. If yes, When you switch from perspective view to Front/Back... views, the perspective view setting is remembered, so when you use 'Snap View' to switch back to perspective view from other directional views, you should get the exact same view as when you left the perspective view. And of course when you leave other directional views, their settings are also remembered so you will have them back when you switch back to them.

Ah, OK, I see now what you have done. You have added (an option for) multiple cameras for each view-port.

When changing views in Silo, you are actually changing view-ports (Display-> Viewport Camera).

Thanks for correcting me, Steve.

IStonia, yes but what if I'm on the right side of my model with the perspective view and want to temporarily snap to left orthographic view? Snapping aligns the camera to the closest orthographic view only. So in this situation I'd have to manually rotate perspective camera to roughly face the left side of the model and this would mean I'd have to rotate it back later to its former position.

P.S. "The Custom/Front/Back...view" options is enabled.

You can use the directional view command directly. For your example, while you are in Right view, you can change to Left view through 'viewport context menu > Left' command.

Only when you need to switch back to perspective view, you have to use the 'Snap View' command.

............yes but what if I'm on the right side of my model with the perspective view and want to temporarily snap to left orthographic view? .

Use the drop down menu (or set-up hotkeys/buttons) to change view to "Left". To change back to perspective(so the camera is still in same position) you currently use "Snap view" (Use either the bottom left of window gadget "S", or set-up an hotkey/button for "Snap view")